Winnipeg winter a shocker for stars

But that's what happened to this entertainment reporter on Saturday morning while covering a press conference for the upcoming romantic comedy New in Town.

The challenger was Harry Connick Jr. who joined castmates Renee Zellweger and Siobhan Fallon Hogan on a podium at the W Hotel in Los Angeles to take reporters' questions about the film shot a year ago during a typically bone-chilling Winnipeg winter.

"Why do you live in that town," Connick asked me. "The people in that town... are amazing, but let's just be real: It's not human to live in a town like that, you know what I'm saying," Connick said.

"That's just crazy cold."

Connick was kidding around, but he can be forgiven for suffering some climate shock since he hails from the comparatively balmy climes of Louisiana.

New in Town, which was shot under the working title Chilled in Miami, stars the Oscar-winning Zellweger as a Miami executive forced to relocate to the Minnesota town of New Ulm to restructure a food-manufacturing plant. Connick plays a union rep who falls for Zellweger.

For her part, Zellweger was more gracious about the occasional discomfort of shooting in Winnipeg.

"There were so many things about that city that were just so charming," she said.

"It was highly entertaining and very educational."

"That was a whole new experience and marvellous exercise in developing new survival skills and 'learning' a whole new language for the biological things that happen," she said.

"Nosticals being one," Connick interjected, referring to the ice deposits that can develop beneath the nose on supercold days.

"Who knew pantyhose could be so very important? Three, four pairs at a time," Zellweger said.

"The pantyhose laid out on the bed by wardrobe every morning, they were essential," she asserted. "I would not be here today if not for the pantyhose, I promise you."

Siobhan Fallon Hogan, a one-time Saturday Night Live cast member, plays the role of Zellweger's assistant.

"I'm from Syracuse (N.Y.) so I didn't think it would be much of a challenge," said Hogan. "So when they gave me the package on how to prepare for Winnipeg I chucked it."

"I went out all the time, I went to The Forks all the time. I met lots of people. It's a great city."

"The tenacity of the people it's just so impressive," said Zellweger. "To me, I look outside and say there's no (visible) roads, I guess there's no driving today. But that's not the case, everybody just gets up and gets on with it. That's just normal, that's just commonplace."

"But again, for the record, it's not normal," Connick said.

New in Town is scheduled to open in theatres across North America Jan. 30.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 11, 2009 A4